Many conventional ice making machines for providing ice cubes or the like require the carrying out of two major steps. First, a slab of ice is formed and, second, the slab is then cut in some manner to provide the cubes. This type of prior art ice making machine requires moving parts or at least auxiliary equipment to effect the cutting operation of the slab of ice once the slab has been formed. Accordingly, such machines are complicated in construction and are difficult to provide in compact configuration as a consequence of the necessity for cutting the slab.
In other types of conventional ice making machines, the cubes are formed in molds or the like and heating means are provided to separate the cubes from the molds when the cubes reach a predetermined size. The ice making machines of this type that have been used in the past or are presently in use have been subject to one or more of the following disadvantages:
1. Owing to shart corners and seams in the molds, they have accumulated dirt and have been difficult to clean and to remove ice cubes therefrom;
2. They have been complicated in construction and, accordingly, difficult and expensive to manufacture and/or operate;
3. They have been too slow in operation and thus incapable of providing a suitable number of ice cubes in an optimum shape in a short period of time; and
4. They have been bulky in size and, owing to their construction and operation, have been difficult to manufacture in a compact configuration.
It will be readily seen, therefore, that a need has arisen for a compact, efficient and inexpensive ice making machine which is capable of continuously producing a suitable number of ice cubes or the like having an optimum shape and no impurities in a short period of time.